


Tides That I Tried To Swim Against

by Elsinore_and_Inverness



Category: Broadchurch, Secret Diary of a Call Girl (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, F/M, Mermaid Hannah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-30 00:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12642393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsinore_and_Inverness/pseuds/Elsinore_and_Inverness
Summary: Alec Hardy meets the mermaid that once saved him from drowning as child





	1. Chapter 1

‘I can’t.’ Hardy stood several feet back from the edge of the water.

‘Do you trust me?’ The woman in the water was floating, her head and shoulders somehow staying above the surface of the with no apparent movement. She couldn’t touch the dock, or the corrugated metal that divided sea from civilization. But the way her wet hair clung to her skin seemed human enough.

‘I’m not even sure you’re real.’

‘I saved you, didn’t I?’

‘When?’ Hardy whispered. A single breath, an incremental erosion of doubt.

‘Ages and ages ago. Just over there. You don’t remember?’ She pointed in the general direction of the cliffs. ‘No, I don’t suppose you would. I wasn’t meant to, but you were so young…’

He shook his head again, in confusion. ‘Who are you?’

‘And now you’ve come back. I’d wondered what had become of you. The only time I broke my oath.’

‘What oath? What are you talking about?’

‘You still spend so much time alone. Still so scared. You look at the water.’

Alec sighed, finally moving closer to edge, taking care to stay out of the reach of the woman in the water. He sat down on the dock. ‘My mum used to tell me stories about the sea people. You were supposed to give them gifts.’ He looked at her, and thought he saw a glimmer of scales below the water. 'There was one constant in those old stories. They would always go back to the ocean. She believed in a lot of things, my mum. God, fate, human reason,’ he smiled humorlessly. 'But the mermaids were just stories.’

'I’m not a story.’

'No. And you made an oath?’

'Humankind doesn’t want to believe in an uncaring universe.’

'There are worse things than neutrality.’

'I’m an agent of order.’

'Order or entropy?’

'Some would say they’re the same thing.’

'You’ve drowned people.’

'Not actively.’

'You’ve allowed people to drown.’

'Humanity is like a virus. They pose a continual threat to the planet. To my people. If this threat is considered to be greater than-‘

'That’s not how viruses work.’

'War, then.’

'War requires intent.’

'Does it?’

Hardy looked down at the dark seawater stains soaked into the concrete and wood of the pier. She had a point. 'What do you want?’

'Come to the edge of the water.’

'I told you I can’t.’

'Clever man.’

Alec shook his head.

'I know I haven’t given you any reason to trust me, but I hope-’ the mermaid fell silent, closing her eyes. She breathed deeply, taking in a lungful of air. With a flick of silver scales she was gone, leaving only a faint trail of bubbles in her wake.

Hardy remained on the dock for several minutes after that, watching the waves. Perhaps she meant to resettle the balance, and maybe one day she would. After all, he wasn’t young or strong or anything that would give the finfolk a reason to keep him alive.

He wrapped his arms around his bony knees and, in the quietest of whispers, sang under his breath- 

‘Where flocks need nae bells and where beasts need nae stay, we sleep tae the sound of the sea’s lullaby, for softly and sweetly sings the song o’ his sway...’


	2. Chapter 2

It was several months until Hardy actually spoke to the mermaid again (as opposed to to merely telling her to go away and leave him alone).

‘You’re still following me.’

‘I’m really not.’

‘I see you from the top of the cliffs sometimes, swimming a circuit around the bay.’

‘Might have been a human.’

‘Humans don’t stay underwater for hours on end.’

‘I was so sure you were going to fall out of that boat earlier.’

‘We are not amused.’

She grinned at his dour expression. ‘You have nothing to fear from the water.’

‘Even if that were true…’

‘It is true.’

‘I still have unpaid debts to this world. Things to solve. Unanswered questions.’

‘You don’t owe anyone anything.’

‘Yes I do. Recompense for harm. Reciprocation of help. I’m not very good at it, but I have existed as person. That’s not something you can do without acquiring obligations.’ 

‘If you owe you also deserve.’

‘That doesn’t make any sense.’

‘Are all humans like this?’

‘Like what?’

‘Intractable.’

‘Absolutely.’


	3. Chapter 3

‘You were right.’ Hardy languidly trailed his fingers in the water and Hannah watched him hesitantly. He’d never been this close to her before… Well, excepting when he was a child and she had saved him from the sea. The bones of his hand curved inward slightly. They would be good for swimming. Swimming the way humans do, using the viscosity of the water.

‘Right about what?’ She wondered.

'Humankind doesn’t want to believe in an uncaring universe.’

'Of course not.’

'You fix one thing, something else goes wrong- And there’s so much. Always so much.’ 

'If it’s outside of your control-’

'It’s not.’

'That’s the mistake.’

'No.’

'You can let go.’

'No.’

Hannah realized something and had to fight back a smile.

He met her eyes questioningly.

'You’ve stopped pressing for information.’

'I’m tired.’ 

'Not as much as before.’ 

'I just don’t feel like there’s anything I can do. It’s- It’s sisyphean.’

'You like complaining.’

Hardy lifted his hand out of the ocean and watched the water run off in rivulets, drops clinging to the hairs. 'You haven’t drowned me yet,’ he observed. 

'Was that a joke?’

He shrugged. Then he did something Hannah didn’t expect, and she was never sure to what extent it was an act of desperation. He swung his legs over the side of the pier and lowered himself into the water. 

The cold was a shock to his system and for the first time since that fateful day all those years ago, he remembered another afternoon much further north. Where the sky was deep grey and the water far colder than this. Where you jumped into the sea because it was what was expected. Before you even thought to be afraid. 

'You okay?’

He could feel the slight current tugging at his clothes and he tried to hold onto the edge of the pier, but his hand slipped on the slick surface and he was left treading water.

'How do you stay floating like that?’

'Ah! There we go. There’s the questions.’

'How?’

'Air distribution.’

'Like a fish.’

'Like a fish.’ She agreed.

Alec had shed his jacket while sitting on the pier, so he wasn’t as waterlogged as he might have been. 'Hannah,’ he whispered, 'can you hold me?’ 

She, not daring to admit how much she had wanted to, that she had seen how starved he was for affection over the months he had spent in Broadchurch, wrapped her arms around him. 

They descended below the surface of the water, the mermaid’s hair spreading out in a gold cloud. The salt stung Hardy’s eyes but he kept them open. She was warm. Somehow he hadn’t expected that. She seemed so human. But then he saw the gill slits that had opened on the sides of her neck. 

He suddenly resented his worn polyester shirt for being between him and the warmth he craved. Hannah saw what he meant to do and still holding one arm around his back, helped him unbutton his shirt. Silently, she touched the edge of the scar under his left collar bone. 

Soon her gills had taken in enough air to buoy them to the surface. Once they were above the water they disappeared into her skin. 

Alec took in a gasp of air. He clung to her, breathing audibly. 'Thank you,’ he finally whispered. 

Impulsively, Hannah leaned forward and met his lips with hers. His beard was rough against her face. They slipped underwater once more. Hardy relaxed into the kiss and slowly allowed himself to reciprocate. 

He soon realized that in addition to kissing him she was actually breathing air into his mouth. 

He broke the surface of the water once more, pulling away to look at her in amazement. 'There’s no way you could be doing a gas transfer that fast. It’s chemically impossible. How are you doing that?’

Hannah touched the side of her neck thoughtfully. 'I’m not a fish.’

'Definitely not a fish.’


End file.
